DALnet

DALnet is one of the largest and best-known IRC networks. It was founded in 1994 by members of the # startrek Channel on EFnet. At times, counted the DALnet 's five largest IRC networks.

History

At its inception it was called " Dal 's net", named after the IRC Admin the first server on the network, " dalvenjah ". Shortly thereafter it was renamed DALnet.

The development was fast for its time: in July 1994, it was started with 25 users, the 1,000 - user mark has already been exceeded in November 1995. 5,000 in June 1996, 10,000 of 50,000 in October 1999, 100,000 in November 2001. Was the peak of growth achieved in December 1996, in June 2002 with 140,000 users and 44 servers. DALnet was briefly the largest IRC network.

Late 2002 and early 2003, DALnet Victim of DDoS attacks. In addition, during this period of operation of the IRC server was twisted.dal.net, who was at that time the largest overall IRC server with 58391 clients ( and this record still holds ), adjusted for personal reasons of the owner. The other servers on the network could not absorb enough, which meant that even ordinary users were only able to connect to the DALnet heavy load. Under these circumstances, the DALnet lost 60 % of its users to other IRC networks. The state has now stabilized again, the old user numbers were never reached again.

Special

The DALnet led 1995, the so-called IRC Services is a registered nicknames and channels with which and could be defended from unauthorized use. Originally, there is no provision in the IRC that you can "own" channel or nicknames. The DALnet was thus the first network that successfully enabled users to accept a permanent online identity on IRC. This service enjoyed great popularity and thus favored the growth of DALnet, and paved the IRC services in general the way.

In 2003, DALnet led under the name "The Concept IX " anycast system for connection, the ix.dal.net via the host name connects with the IP address of the " nearest " server.